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NBC News Asks Romney Campaign to Remove Ad

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NBC News Asks Romney Campaign to Remove Ad

January 28, 2012 2:18 pmJanuary 28, 2012 2:18 pm

4:29 p.m. | Updated TAMPA, Fla. – NBC News is asking that the Romney campaign remove from its ads any references to material from the network in response to a new commercial that consists almost entirely of old footage of its former news anchor, Tom Brokaw, reporting on Newt Gingrich’s legal troubles.

The ad, which uses a 1997 clip from the day Mr. Gingrich was found guilty by the House of ethics violations, prompted a terse statement from Mr. Brokaw on Saturday in which he expressed concern that his work was being used for political purposes he never intended.

“I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad,” he said. “I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”

NBC’s lawyers have requested that the Romney campaign not only pull down the commercial but eliminate any references to the network’s journalism in other ads.

“The NBC Legal Department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads,” said Lauren Kapp, the network’s senior vice president for marketing and communications. “Similar requests have gone out to other campaigns that have inappropriately used Nightly News, Meet the Press, Today and MSNBC material.”

The Romney campaign said Saturday that it had received a letter from NBC but was reluctant to take the ad off the air because it believes it falls within the provisions of the fair-use doctrine, which allows for limited use of copyrighted materials.

The episode highlights a frequent but potentially fraught practice in political advertising. Campaigns routinely use clips from news articles and programs in their advertisements as a way to give their message independent credibility. But they almost never request permission from the news organizations themselves, and work that was never intended to be used for political purposes gets suddenly cast in a partisan light.

The Romney campaign is hardly alone in using footage without permission. Mr. Gingrich was under pressure this week to pull an anti-Romney ad featuring a clip of Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate in 2008, that misleadingly implies that Mr. Huckabee is questioning Mr. Romney’s integrity. The clip is from an old Huckabee ad that was never broadcast in which he says, “If a man’s dishonest to get a job, he’ll be dishonest on the job.” Mr. Huckabee, who has not endorsed anyone in the Republican race, said he knew nothing about Mr. Gingrich’s commercial until it was broadcast.

Whatever the implications for NBC News are, the commercial seemed to serve the campaign’s purpose. The Internet was full of posts on Saturday with NBC’s demand that the campaign pull the ad.

Mr. Romney’s spokeswoman wrote on Twitter: “Watch the @MittRomney ad that has everyone abuzz here!” and included a link to the video.